Politicians love it. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t leave home without it. Super investor John Doerr sneaks it into church and coffee shops use it as a cash register. But imagine the magic when iPad meets the other great invention of our times, Velcro. Watch this video from Jesse Rosten and find out. As they say….roll the tape!
As my readers well know, I’ve long been a champion of mobile VoIP services, from Gizmo to Truphone to Nimbuz to Skype. I’ve used and at some point, liked them all, though lately I’m fixated on Skype, mostly because of how simply it works. I think it will be one of the winners of the mobile VoIP sweepstakes, a market expected to grow to 100 million users by 2012, according to Juniper Research.
According to a report released by the UK firm today titled “Mobile Voice Strategies: mVoIP Opportunities & Business Models,” a large portion of mobile VoIP traffic is going to run over Wi-Fi networks, thus diminishing the circuit switch market. It estimates that by 2015, VoIP traffic over Wi-Fi will account for about $5 billion in revenues.
As mobile VoIP continues to gain momentum, I expect to see phone companies — which have been fighting the mobile VoIP wave tooth and nail — start buying up startups in the space, many of which have built products that go beyond plain-vanilla calling plans. Nimbuzz, Truphone, iSkoot and others are all ripe for acquisition by the likes of major international mobile players. As to potential buyers, I think Vodafone, T-Mobile and AT&T will be among the first looking to cash in on the action.
Earlier this week, a blog post on ReadWriteWeb said that Google’s speedy and nimble Chrome browser was eating into the market share of Mozilla’s Firefox browser and other browser competitors, especially amongst the early adopters. Their post was inspired by data from NetMarketShare, a service that tracks the browser market share, and set off a chain reaction of other blog posts that glommed onto the Chrome-versus-Firefox story line.
There is no denying that Chrome has won the recent battle for mindshare amongst the early adopters. There is no denying that Mozilla has problems that go beyond the pending loss of their chief executive, John Lilly to a venture capital firm. And no one can deny that so far Mozilla has blown the opportunity to have an impact on the mobile platforms. And if my sources are correct, then it is plenty evident that Mozilla has been overcome with a sense of ennui, something which prompted wunderkid and Firefox’s co-reinventor Blake Ross to say, “I think the Mozilla Organization has gradually reverted back to its old ways of being too timid, passive and consensus-driven to release breakthrough products quickly.” Ouch!
How bad are things at Mozilla? Not as bad as one would think. In a recent blog post, Mozilla’s Aza Dotzler pointed out that for every Chrome downloader, there are 2.5 folks who download Firefox. “Firefox gained just over 100 million users in the same period that Chrome gained just over 40 million users,” he wrote.
One of my sources shared with me some internal Mozilla data and now I share that with you these metrics to give you a better understanding of how Firefox is doing on a day-to-day basis. While longer term data has been plotted in the accompanying charts, I have carved out the numbers for the most recent two weeks (May 12-to-May 25). Here is what they say about Firefox’s daily active users, where they are from and daily Firefox downloads:
When I reached out to Mozilla, a spokesperson responded in an email: “Because our user base of roughly 400 million represents both early adopters and mainstream consumers, we see significant daily variations on week day vs. weekend. We also see this when there are local holidays and seasonal effects, and especially during the summer months when people are on holiday/vacation.”
Given that holiday season has started in many parts of the world, with schools and universities shutting down, we might be seeing a slump in Firefox usage and downloads. Firefox according to NetMarketShare is still showing growth on a month to month basis – from June 2009 (22.43 percent) to April 2010 (24.59 percent), Firefox has increased its marke share by 2.16 percent.
That along with the 100 million+ daily active installations (Mozilla claims it has 400 million users), shows that Firefox is far from having a real moment of crisis. Not only does it have time to course-correct and respond to all its critics, it also has time to regain momentum.
It could do so with the Firefox 3.6.4, which is going to release next week and will have built-in plugin isolation, allowing the browser to overcome the bloat and problems caused by plugins such as Adobe’s Flash (especially on the Mac version of Firefox.)
What is more important: Firefox needs to bring in fresh thinking of the organization and it is doing so by bringing on board Tantek Celik, a champion of open/web standards who in his past life created Internet Explorer for the Mac.
Related content from GigaOM Pro: (sub req’d):
What Does the Future Hold for Browsers?
In October 2009, Mozilla’s outgoing CEO John Lilly told me that Mozilla was working on a new iPhone app which it would release in next few weeks. Weeks turned into months, but Mozilla is finally getting ready to release Firefox Home, which as predicted was based on a Mozilla Labs project called Weave. Since then, the project has been renamed, Firefox Sync and include the Firefox “Awesome Bar.” In a blog post, Mozilla spokesperson writes:
The app is called Firefox Home, and it gives iPhone users instant access to their Firefox browsing history, bookmarks and the set of tabs from their most recent browser session. What’s more, it provides Firefox “Awesome Bar” capability that enables people to get to their favorite web sites with minimal typing.
Firefox Home provides an amazing “get up and go” experience. It’s encrypted end-to-end. It’s your home on the Web, wherever you are. And, of course, it’s free.
Firefox Home for iPhone is part of a broader Mozilla effort to provide a more personal Web experience with more user control. For devices or platforms where we’re unable to provide the “full” Firefox browser (either technically or due to policy), we aim to provide users with “on the go” instant access to their personal Firefox history, bookmarks and open tabs on their iPhones, giving them another reason to keep loving Firefox on their desktops.
I don’t know about you, but I am actually super excited to try out this app as soon as it become available on the iPhone store.
With the rise of new angel investors and early-stage venture funds, the venture capital industry is going through a revival, according to Brad Feld, one of the founders of the Boulder, Colo.-based VC firm, Foundry Group. “It’s back to the basics,” Feld told me during a video interview in which I discovered that both of us love Robert Graham’s somewhat over-the-top shirts. Feld is a great interview subject, mostly because he marches to the beat of a drum that is uniquely his own.
After all, it’s not every day you get to talk to someone whose startup investments spawned esoterically labeled sectors such as “Glue,” “Human Computer Interaction,” “Protocol” and “Disruption” by backing companies such as Oblong, Memeo, PogoPlug, SimpleGeo and Zynga. Foundry also invested in Sling Media, which was subsequently acquired by Echostar for $380 million.
During a 20-minute video chat he talks about his journey from Boston to Boulder and says that while it isn’t important for an investor to be in an early-stage startup’s proximity, it is important to be in the flow of things. His approach is unusual; the conventional wisdom on Sand Hill Road is to invest in companies that are within driving range.
We also discussed the myths of entrepreneurship, notably why sometimes people look at first-time successes such as Mark Zuckerberg and forget that entrepreneurship is a life-long endeavor, not a “two-year game.” We also talked about why fewer and fewer people think about the long term at all, instead focusing just on what’s coming up next.
After our conversation was over, it occurred to me: Feld talks the same way he writes on his blog, Feld Thoughts.
Here are some of the gems from our conversation, which include some great advice for startups and entrepreneurs:
Video shot and produced by Chris Albrecht
Android is getting the majority of its traction from the North American region while the iPhone is more global in nature, according to a new report from the soon-to-be-owned-by-Google mobile advertising company, AdMob. Of course, that’s due to change soon given that Google claims some 100,000 Android-based phones are being activated every day on 59 carriers in 48 countries.
The “devices shipped can be very different from the installed user base on a platform,” notes AdMob. It uses Apple as an example, pointing to how Cupertino “does not break out how many of the 85 million iPhone OS units are no longer in use, what the overlap is between iPhone and iPod touch users.” Well you could say the same for Android devices. I already have three Android-based phones I no longer use.
And that is precisely why I like AdMob’s “unique devices” approach.
AdMob says that in the U.S. in April there were 10.7 million iPhone devices compared to 8.7 million Android devices. Add in the iPod touch, and the gap between the platforms increases to 2:1 in the US and 3.5:1 globally. Nearly 75 percent of Android devices are used in North America, compared to 49 percent of iPhone OS devices.
According to AdMob, in April HTC accounted for the second-largest smartphone traffic in the U.S. after Apple, with 18.9 percent of the total traffic share vs. iPhone’s 38 percent. On a worldwide basis, HTC accounted for 10 percent of traffic, though Apple leads there with a 41 percent share.
Megan Garber at Nieman Journalism Lab has written a nice review of our iPhone and iPod touch app. First of all, thanks to her and to Nieman for liking the app. She also picked up on one of the key elements of our app: bringing our team of writers closer to our readers and our community. This exchange of insights and accessibility to our readers is part of our philosophy and is why we do what we do. Here is what I told Garber:
There should be no friction when it comes to our readers getting in touch with us. That was the premise of starting my company, and that’s the premise I hold true today. We are who we are because of our readers, and they should have the ability to get in touch with us whenever they want.
While it might result in more email and more work for our team, customer service is part of any business. Communication with our readers is just that — judicious learning and improving from the folks who matter the most. As I said:
“I have learned so much…by being able to communicate with people on a one-on-one basis…That, really, is what’s behind this whole thing.
I also want to thank AppsFire for making GigaOM iPhone App the featured app of the day on their home page and sending us all those great readers. If you want to learn more about our app and download it, click here.
You can read my post about our iPhone and iPod touch app and the philosophy behind the design here.
“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi.
I included that quote because I was bemused by AT&T’s announcement that it’s building a giant Wi-Fi hotspot in Times Square as a way to offload traffic from its pokey and overcrowded 3G network.
Times Square may not be the only massive, public hotspot effort by Ma Bell — if the pilot works then AT&T plans to roll out in three other locations. I bet those places will be in New York and San Francisco, where AT&T performs like a 300-pound man running up a 60-degree incline. In 2008 AT&T bought Wayport for $275 million and with it 21,000 hotspots in places such as the Starbucks coffee chain, but the carrier never effectively used that network to boost its Wi-Fi capabilities.
AT&T, for as long as I can remember, was what I would call a Wi-Fi hater: using its immense lobbying powers to kill municipal Wi-Fi and other such efforts. Its executives often joked about Wi-Fi not being a carrier-class technology. Good to see them learning from those they mocked.
But they should also be reaching out to cable companies, which have Wi-Fi initiatives of their own and lease capacity on their Wi-Fi networks in order to accommodate their 3G customers. Cablevision in Long Island, N.Y. would be a good place to start.
Related GigaOM Pro Content (sub req’d): How AT&T Will Deal With iPad Data Traffic
Image courtesy Flickr user Adventures in Librarianship.
I start each day by working out, but today, I made an exception –- I woke up and tuned into the live feed of TechCrunch Disrupt. I was hoping to see what one of my favorite Silicon Valley people had to say — John Doerr, who somehow has a way of encapsulating an era, a trend or a combination of technologies with just a few succinct words.
I mean this is the guy who uttered the memorable (and very true, in hindsight) lines such as “the largest legal creation of wealth on the planet“ or “The old economy was about monopolies; the new economy is about competition.” And who can forget: “I have never paid so much for so little,” following his investment in Google.
This is also the man who invested in market-making startups such as Sun Microsystems, Intuit, Genentech, Symantec, Amazon.com, Netscape, Google and more recently, Bloom Energy. He was due to talk about the third wave, Michael Arrington had hinted in a post — and in light of the fact that he was the driving force behind @Home, the company that jump-started the broadband revolution — I was more than a little excited to hear what he had to say.
So I made myself a nice cup of peach-flavored white tea and sat down to watch the conversation Doerr was having with Charlie Rose, another one of my favorite people. Watching two people I admire that much talk about the future was so exciting that I forgot to call my parents, who were leaving to make their way over to the U.S. Oops!
What I got was a commercial for social gaming startup, Zynga, which Doerr described by saying: “We invested in Zynga 20 months ago, and it’s the fastest-growing venture we’ve ever had.” Then came his thesis about the third wave:
I think we’re on the verge of a third great wave of innovation. The first was the microchip and the PC in the early 80s. The second wave was 1995: the Internet. Marc Andresseen brought Netscape Navigator to the world. Then Amazon came. Then in 1999 we saw the 15th search engine called “Google.”
This third wave is social, mobile, new commerce. We don’t have a name for it yet. We could be on the verge of reinventing the web. It’s people, it’s places, it’s relationships. It’s exciting.
These smartphones change everything. They’re always connected, always on. It’s a powerful new platform. 85 million iPhones and iPod touches – we’re there. And now we have the iPad. It took just 28 days to sell a million of them. It’s not a big iPod. It’s a new paradigm. Imagine 10 years forward.
That was the extent of what he had to offer; even in a subsequent follow-up interview with TechCrunch TV he had little to add. But Social, Mobile and New Commerce — that doesn’t add up to the third wave of anything. That’s just the natural evolution of the Internet. It was obvious in 2002 that due to a growing number of broadband connections, more edge touch points (mobiles, laptops, connected televisions) and more people on the web, the Internet revolution, which began in 1995 — with Doerr providing the fertilizer — would continue to gain scale.
It was also obvious that more people and more always-on connections at higher speeds would mean more opportunities. Social — thanks to a determined kid named Mark Zuckerberg — is now part of the Internet fabric. More than 500 million have already signed on to be part a part of his social networking site, even despite the company’s privacy-related shenanigans.
Mobile? We’ve been a mobile society for the past few years — the iPhone only added fuel to the fire lit by the rollout of 3G networks in the middle of this decade. And new commerce? That’s an idea the South Koreans and the Japanese have been mucking around with since the 90′s and lately the Chinese. Zynga might be the darling today, but virtual currencies and gifts have been around an awful lot longer than that.
So if Social, Mobile and New Commerce are the third wave, we are way past the prediction stage. We’re already riding it. What comes next? That’s what I want to know. Especially from the one man whom I’ve have always counted on as being able to see the future better than everyone else.
P.S.: If you have thoughts about the next evolution of the web, leave a comment or feel free to drop me an email with your thoughts.
From GigaOM Pro: As Zynga Profits From Personal Data, Other Opportunities Abound and Is an iPhone- and Android-Only World the Best We Can Do?
Google with its annual developer conference, Google I/O, dominated the technology conversation last week. Whether it was taking jabs at Apple, launching a competitor to H.264 video technology or simply offering its own version of Amazon S3, the Big G didn’t disappoint its fans (though some remain skeptical of certain initiatives, such as Google TV).
All that hoopla aside, the focus of the conference was Google’s Android OS and the mobile ecosystem it’s spawned. Add Google TV to the mix and it’s safe to say that Google devoted nearly a quarter of its stage and talk time to Android. CEO Eric Schmidt, VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra and the co-founder of the Android movement himself, Andy Rubin — all waxed eloquent about the OS. Chrome, meanwhile, appeared to have become little more than an afterthought for the company.
Android’s Adaptability
Yes Google held a press conference where co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin talked up the Chrome Web Store, but that was pretty much it. That’s because while Chrome is still waiting for its day in the sun, Android has taken on a life of its own. By the time the Chrome OS becomes available via devices on store shelves, who knows where Android will be.
Just look at some of the most recent Android-specific stats:
“I am delighted to see Android in places I didn’t expect to see it in,” Rubin said at Google I/O. A good example is Google TV — which is comprised of Android running off an Intel x86 processor with a browser on top of it. Indeed, as I wrote at the time of Android’s launch, what makes Android special is its adaptability. From e-readers to set-top boxes to cars to even refrigerators, the OS has shown tremendous adaptability. By offering it for free (with some strings attached), Google has made it possible for all sorts of hardware makers to tinker with it.
And as such it makes perfect sense for Google to marshal all its resources behind Android the way Apple has done with the iPhone OS. But what of Chrome?
Chrome’s Tablet Future?
“Android has evolved over the past four years and Chrome OS hasn’t launched just yet, so it’s an unfair comparison,” Rubin said in response to a question at last week’s conference in which he was asked to do just that. I took his comment to mean that Google was purposefully following a dual strategy, and when I asked why, Gundotra candidly admitted it’s a strategy the company may adjust down the road — specifically, that there may be a way for the two technologies to converge.
Now that would make sense in a touch-centric, tablet-based world. Imagine Android running the Chrome browser in order to offer a panoply of web apps via the web-based app store that co-founder Sergey Brin described at Google I/O. Though when veteran scribe Dan Gillmor asked about an Android Tablet, both Rubin and Gundotra dodged the question.
Our own Kevin Tofel thinks one of the reasons Chrome OS is taking a back seat to Android may be hardware-related. After all, Chrome OS was initially introduced as a platform for the netbook form factor, but if the market is shifting to tablets, Google will have to make some significant changes to it in order to make it finger-friendly.
Folks in the know tell me that Google bought Canadian user interface innovator BumpTop so that it can build a unique user interface on top of Android for Google’s GPad, which could offered to hardware makers as reference design. That could be just what Android needs in order to compete with Apple and its iPad in the tablet space.
I’ve long been wary of Chrome OS because I think it would suffer from Google-itis in that its underpinning would be the company’s identification system and would always prefer Google web apps. And given that Google doesn’t have a presence in the social web, it would lack social sense and sensibility.
For comparison, look at the JoliCloud OS, which is completely socially aware and uses Facebook Connect as a way to bridge various components with a user’s social graph. That’s what a modern OS for cloud clients should look like.
Now don’t get me wrong — I don’t want to hate on Chrome OS. I just think Google needs to pick a winning horse. And the winner here is clearly Android.
“An increasing trend is big funds like ours banding with angels and writing small checks just to try and get a foot in the door.” Geoff Yang, Redpoint Ventures, on how lean startups are changing the dynamics of the VC industry. (Bloomberg)
How quickly time flies — just like that, a whole year has gone by and we’re once again in the homestretch of preparations for our web infrastructure and cloud computing conference, Structure. In this third year of the event, we have expanded it to two days in order to accommodate an even more diverse range of topics. What he have not changed is the location — the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco is where we’ll meet on June 23rd and 24th. (To buy tickets, click here.)
We’re going to be hosting an all star line-up to talk about, among other things, the future of cloud computing, the changing role of virutalization, the new new networks, the growing importance of big data and most importantly, how it all impacts business. As always, we strive to curate an editorial event that’s focused on some of the issues we believe will become industry talking points over the next few years. In order to do that, we invite the best and the brightest to share their insights.
This year will see keynotes delivered by Paul Maritz, CEO of VMware; Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon; and Erich Clementi, head of IBM’s cloud efforts. Dr. Donald Ferguson, CTO of CA Techologies, is going to discuss its transformation into a cloud company and where it’s headed next. And Harel Kodesh, president of EMC’s cloud infrastructure business, will talk about the impact that company’s moves will have on cloud storage.
And then there is the indomitable Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of Salesforce, who returns this year to talk about how he believes the software market will evolve in this new cloud-centric world. And last but not the least, we will be joined by Paul Sagan, CEO of Akamai, who will discuss the future of application delivery in the cloud.
But that’s not all — we continue to add more speakers each week. Check out the complete list of speakers and the conference schedule, and go here to get your tickets before they sell out.
Hope to see you all in June!
Tweetdeck, a London-based startup that builds software to consume rapidly updating information streams, has raised $3 million in funding in what is an internal round, according to John Borthwick, co-founder of Betaworks, a NY-based startup and investment group. Betaworks is a lead investor in the company started by Iain Dodsworth; other angel investors include Ron Conway of SV Angel, Howard Lindzon and Danny Rimer of Index Ventures.
With this Series B round of funding, the company has raised a total of $3.5 million, including $800,000 via a convertible note last year. TechCrunch reported that the company had raised a total of $5.3 million, but that figure is not correct, Borthwick told us. Like its rival Seesmic, Tweetdeck is desperately trying to move away from its reliance on Twitter, which has decided to compete with client-makers.
Tweetdeck (and Seesmic), which have embraced rapidly updating personal data streams such as Facebook, Google Buzz and Foursquare, are also looking to diversify beyond their desktop applications into mobile apps. Liz, who’s covering the Google I/O in San Francisco, spoke to one of the folks at the Tweetdeck booth there and learned that the company is working on synchronizing data and updates across many different services. It also announced an experimental HTML5 version, though it won’t be coming to a device near you anytime soon.
Related content from GigaOM pro (sub req’d):
How Will We Access the Next-gen Web?
I’m not sure what’s behind our politicians’ sudden attempts to get hip to the latest technology, but I am all for it. After clamoring for Skype, it seems many on Capitol Hill have become fans of Apple’s iPad. They include folks such as Representative Darrell Issa (R- CA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and many others:
“This thing is the bomb,” said [Utah Rep. Jason] Chaffetz, who carts his mid-size tablet everywhere but the House floor, where technology like laptops is still banned. “It’s light; it’s portable. It’s accessible information. I love it.”
Apparently some view the iPad as a way to replace the antiquated technology in D.C., as well as the stacks of paper and enormous binders of legislation. Politico says the iPad could have an impact bigger than the BlackBerry. As our own Mathew Ingram quipped to me in an email, “So now they can fiddle with their iPads instead of paying attention to what they are voting on :-)”
Now, I’m not sure if that’s really going to happen, but using new technology is a step in the right direction. And an iPad fanboy myself, I can’t find fault with our politicians seeing the light.
In a related note, a research report from IDC says that the growing popularity of the iPad is going to help jump-start the demand for media tablets.
According to a new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide media tablet shipments will grow from 7.6 million units in 2010 to more than 46 million units in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57.4%. In comparison, IDC expects 398 million portable PCs will be shipped in 2014.
IDC defines media tablets as tablet form factor devices with 7-12in. color displays. They are currently based on ARM processors and run lightweight operating systems such as Apple’s iPhone OS and Google’s Android OS. This distinguishes them from tablet PCs, which are based on x86 processors and run full PC operating systems.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Can Anyone Compete With the iPad?
Finally, the big day has arrived. Apple has approved the GigaOM iPhone app — it’s now available via the iTunes store for download. It goes without saying that we’re pretty stoked to be launching this app, which essentially offers a unified experience of all our various properties — from our blogs to our paid subscription service to our events to our real-time Twitter feed. One brand, one app…download it now from the iTunes store. It works both on the iPhone and the iPod touch.
Many of our readers are already using the iPhone and Android browsers to read what we write, and those numbers keep going up. So it made perfect sense for us to build an app for the iPhone. Importantly, we decided against building an offering that merely mimics the experience of our websites.
Mobile and the web are two distinct experiences — from the screens to the way we interact with content, the engagement is entirely different. We started with a blank sheet and an idea with which to engage our readers. But that wasn’t all. In order to set guidelines for our app, I turned to the fantastically brilliant mobile guru Tomi T. Ahonen (author of the Communities Dominate Brands blog) and looked at the eight unique characteristics of mobile he lists. They are:
OK so we’re missing the augmented reality features, but you get the point. Based on those abilities, here are the features in our app:
So download it and give it whirl — I hope you’ll give us loads of feedback so we can make it even better!
Finally, this app never would have been possible without the tireless efforts of three of our team members: our tech Jedi, Chancey Mathews; our director of product, Dan Burke; and our SVP of product & marketing, Dan Silmore. We worked with our friends at Atimi to develop this app and are very grateful for their efforts. Please, if you can, put your hands together and applaud the team that turned my wild idea into an app.
Now I can finally say: Want GigaOM on the iPhone? Yup, there’s an app for that.
Wow…the 3G auction in India has raised a whopping $11 billion by selling licenses to some of the country’s major telecom carriers including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Aircel. That is an astounding amount of money considering the low tariffs in the Indian market, where voice minutes and SMS messages are ridiculously cheap and most telecom carriers are struggling to keep their profit streams intact.
Bharti, for example, is in the process of buying the assets of Zain in 15 African countries in order to diversify from the hyper-competitive Indian market. Vodafone, which entered the Indian market with much fanfare a few years ago, is taking it on the chin these days. In its most recent quarter, the company said it was taking an impairment charge of around 2.3 billion pounds ($3.31 billion) related to its operations there.
There is no reason to believe that things will be any different in the 3G world. The 3G buildout isn’t going to be cheap and if the tariffs remain low, expect things to be tough for Indian telecoms. Given the history of telecom regulation in the country, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and/or the Department of Telecommunications continued to make short-term, politically popular moves that will kill the golden goose. Bharti Airtel, for instance, spent $2.6 billion on the 3G spectrum — good luck recouping that after a big network buildout.
While it might seem like an opportunity for hardware providers like Ericsson, I think the big winners of India’s 3G buildout are going to be the three smartphone giants: Apple, Research in Motion and Google with its Android ecosystem.
In fact, if Google was smart, it would be shifting much of its mobile resources to India right now. Not only could it use the demand for cheap 3G smartphones to its advantage, it could also jump-start its tablet ambitions by building low-cost devices coupled with affordable 3G Internet plans.
Similarly, Apple could offer a lower-priced version of the iPhone 3G/3GS in the Indian market — even as it introduces the higher-priced iPhone 4 in it core markets such as the U.S., Europe and Japan.
When it comes to unified communications, the biggest challenge to date has been getting products from one company to work with those of another, even if they used similar (or the same) underlying technologies. Whether it was Polycom, Logitech’s LifeSize, Hewlett-Packard or Microsoft — they were all islands of their own. Now, along with Juniper Networks, these companies have created a Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), an alliance aimed at removing all the annoyances around unified communications. In plain English — they all want their products to work with each other. The group has already attracted members including VoIP companies such as Acme Packet and BroadSoft.
With the unified communications market expected to grow to $14.5 billion by 2015, it makes perfect sense for all these companies to interoperate. The changing nature of work is forcing people to use video and audio conferencing more frequently, along with newer forms of collaboration tools. It becomes tough for companies to work together if their communications gear doesn’t talk to each other. From that perspective, UCIF is a great first step.
I think that if UCIF wants to be successful over the long term, it needs to work with Skype, which in my view is becoming the de facto leader in low-latency, low-cost and easy-to-use collaboration tools. Small and new web companies in particular are shunning expensive gear and using Skype for all their communication needs.
One company that is conspicuous by its absence in this alliance? Cisco Systems. The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant is the big gorilla in this market, thanks to it lavish spending to promote its Telepresence solutions and its recent acquisition of Tandberg. Cisco does and will continue to work as an island because as a company it stands to benefit handsomely by selling its own hardware. So it’s safe to say that the UCIF is a broadside against Cisco.
Silicon Valley companies — big and small — are off on a shopping spree and if you are a start-up, that is really good news. First a rundown of some of the deals making news today.
And if you look at some of the deals announced earlier, you know the M&A activity has been in full swing.
Last week Stacey pointed out the sudden spurt in acquisitions, especially in the cloud computing arena.
A focus on clouds, especially managing clouds in ways enterprise customers (GigaOM Pro, sub req’d) might want has led to several acquisitions so far this year on the part of big tech vendors like IBM, VMware and CA, all of which are looking to add new functionality in order to broaden their business. Hear more on these companies’ acquisitions strategies at our Structure 2010 conference June 23 and 24.
So what is going on? Why this sudden urge to buy? Well, for past 12 months or so, many large companies have been sitting on the sidelines, trying to get through what was arguably a heinous time in the economy by cutting costs and controlling margins. A typical (and safe) way to do this is by cutting workforce and eliminate projects that cost money.
However, as the economy has turned, many large companies are trying to find ways to add newer products and thus goose-up their business. Take for example Yahoo’s acquisition of content factory, Associated Content is an effort to cash in on the slowly but steadily growing demand for display advertising. This is a short term trade Yahoo is making in order to boost their advertising revenues.
I won’t be surprised if we see the drumbeat of deals get louder and louder. For start-ups that means one thing: good news.
Every weekend, I try to collate some of the best posts and articles I’ve read on the web and share them with all of you. For the past few weeks I have been remiss in my duties, for reasons explained earlier. So today I wanted to share some of the links and news stories that I think are worth your time.
Spotify, the hot online music service that has taken Europe by storm, has been approved for launch in the Ovi store, making it a godsend for millions of Nokia users in Europe. Spotify is already available on the iPhone platform and has been charging customers for premium service. For Nokia the availability of Spotify in the Ovi Store will be a big boost as Nokia’s app store looks for successful apps to fend off rivals such as Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone OS.
There is also word that Spotify is going to launch in Netherlands very shortly, based on a comment thread on Get Satisfaction, where a company spokesperson recently left a comment indicating the pending launch.
